Darling
by CheeseSwiss
Summary: Situation: Stranded on a deserted island, Blair, Chuck, Nate, Serena and Dan have to face their demons and confront their innermost fears before it's too late. New love will ignite, while old love turns to ashes.
1. Down

**Hello :)**

**This is my third fanfiction story on this website and I thought the theme was going to be Gossip Girl.**

**It is set somewhere in season 3 or season 4 when Blair and Chuck were on more or less good terms and when Louis hadn't appeared. I figured our much-loved and hated characters ought to take a break from their messy NY-lives and discover nature and themselves a little more. Because, come on, wouldn't it be cool to see Blair a little more down to earth and Serena not so jealous and bitchy?**

**And another thing: I'm going to name the chapters after songs I like, so maybe you'll recognize a few.**

**Well, anyway, love it or hate it, here it is:**

**Chapter One: Down**

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><p><strong>(Disclaimer: I own none of the characters of Gossip Girl, except the pilot)<strong>

"I think Hawaii will be lovely," Serena said dreamily as she looked out of the airplane window. Blair, sitting right next to her, sighed. "Sure, if lovely means getting my new D&G sandals dirty."

Serena laughed. "Relax, B. I'm sure they've laid out a red carpet over the sand, just for you." She herself was really looking forward to getting away from the stress and drama in New York and she had promised herself: no more boys. There had been to much of them lately, and she realized she needed some peace and quiet. Some time think over things. Like Nate and Dan. Like her future. She had bludgeoned those important things too much by covering herself with artificial love and now she realized she had been _hiding _from it, because dealing with those things made her feel… vulnerable. And not like the Queen Bee she had always loved to be.

Dan, Nate and Chuck were coming as well. Truth be told, Serena really looked forward to seeing Dan bare-chested, riding the waves on a surfboard. What she didn't look forward to though, was trying to keep Chuck away from bars and ladies. But she knew she had to. For Blair. When Chuck was upset he did the wrong things and made the wrong choices, and in the end his down-side affected Blair and she became upset, too. Chuck was at times like a nuclear power plant at melt-down, radiating negativity and Blair always happened to be close to Chuck when that happened. And since Serena cared for Blair more than she was ever going to admit, she would do everything in her power to prevent her best friend's heart from being broken.

Hawaii was going to be the perfect break from woe and misery, for all of them. Serena was sure, sheeven _knew_ that even Chuck would find tranquility in the blue ocean and Hawaiian sunsets and the Hibiscus flowers.

What she didn't know was that they were never going to reach the island.

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><p>The first tremors were subtle. Dan noticed merely that the jet was shaking by looking up from his book and seeing the water in the Evian bottle on the table in front of him rise and sink. He frowned, but didn't think too much about it – after all, it was nothing extraordinary about planes shaking a little. That happened all the time – turbulence.<p>

But somehow he couldn't return to the safety of his book anymore. Instead he let his gaze wander until it connected with Serena's. She smiled softly, and he couldn't help smiling back. To him she always seemed like a sun, radiating light and happiness. It was too bad that she felt she had to cover herself with clouds all the time.

Serena opened her mouth to say something and then –

The jet gave such a violent shake that Dan was thrust forwards, the seatbelt digging into his stomach, and the Evian bottle rolling off the table and splattering water over the carpet. Gasping for air, he fumbled with the seatbelt, trying to open it, but when the seatbelt-sign above him started blinking, he decided to let it be. Something was going on, something bad.

Serena looked at him again, now alarm in her sapphire eyes. He felt an urge to comfort her, tell her that everything was going to be all right, that there was nothing to worry about, but then the jet started shaking _for real _and there was no space for words anymore.

An oxygen mask was dropped in front of his and everyone else's faces. Dan immediately pulled on his, and was reassured when he saw Serena do the same.

Just because they hadn't been together for a while and things had divided them apart, it didn't mean that he didn't still care deeply for her. It wasn't some silly crush either, the one you read about in cheap romance novels and see in cheesy movies. It was violent, it was beautiful and it was _real_.

The voice of a flight attendant suddenly filled the jet: "Please remain in your seats. There's nothing to be afraid of, everything's under control. We apologize for this disturbance."

And that was all. Dan could barely believe it. The jet was shaking as if it was going to crash any minute, and the woman was saying there wasn't anything to be afraid of?

"But what's going on?" he yelled, hoping to get a _proper _explanation. "Why is it shaking? Hey!"

Nate put a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe we should just listen to them." He looked scary somehow with the oxygen mask on, but his voice was calm.

Annoyed, Dan wanted to snap at him that there was a reason Nate had gotten low grades in high school. _Maybe we should just listen to them_. Dan didn't want to ruin any relationship he and Nate had – but his life was hanging on the line here, it seemed and Nate was saying stupid things like this. His life and Serena's, too.

Suddenly the lights went off in the cabin. It didn't make any difference since sunlight was streaming freely through the windows, but when Dan saw that the seatbelt-sign had stopped blinking, an ice-cold fear hooked its claws into his heart. And it was in that moment he knew that they were – in the lack of a better word – pretty, damn _screwed_.

The jet started dipping forwards violently. Again he was squashed against the seat in front of him. The luggage compartments above their heads started to open and their bags fell out. One bag – that unfortunately happened to be Dan's - missed Serena's head by an inch. She shrieked and ducked.

"_This is the last time I'm going with you in your jet, Chuck!" _Nate shouted through the cacophony. Chuck replied something, but the answer was drowned in the sound of the motors and rush of air outside the jet.

Dan's eyes locked with Serena's. He was 120 % per cent sure they shared the same thought: _I don't want to lose you!_

And then everything turned dark.

* * *

><p>The quiet was dark-red and pulsing. Something throbbed, something else burned. Serena wanted out of this frightening state. Whether that meant dying or not didn't matter to her.<p>

Slowly, slowly, she opened her eyes.

Blue sky. Swaying palms above her. That was all. She couldn't hear anything though; just a buzz that hurt her eardrums. She smelt sea-air and smoke. Her throat was clogged with blood. She started coughing, turning sideways as she did. The blood stained the fine-grained white sand. But she felt better at once, and her throat didn't throb as much.

Now she could see more than sky and palms. A beach stretched in front of her, peaceful and calm. Or – it would have been peaceful and calm, had it not been for the burning jet. Flames licked the sleek white body, the engines moved restlessly. The fuselage was blackened by the fire and nearly all the windows of the jet were broken.

She didn't see anyone else.

"Blair!" she tried to call with her still relatively sore throat. "Dan. Nate. Chuck. Anyone. Please."

Gradually, her hearing returned to her and she could hear the crackle of flames and rush of the Pacific wind. She tried to sit up but at once nausea rolled over her. She wanted to throw up, but her stomach was too empty for it. There was also an urge to cry in her. Never had she imagined that something like this would happen to her. Things like these simply didn't happen to the upper class of Manhattan, to _socialite _Serena van der Woodsen.

Suddenly Dan was leaning over her, fumbling with his hands over her face. "Serena… Serena, are you all right?" He himself looked fine, except for a cut on his cheek and a red spot on his temple that would eventually develop into a bruise.

She nodded slowly. Her arm hurt a little and when she looked at it, she saw a cut that luckily wasn't too deep. That explained the burning. There was a lump on the side of her head, too, but at least she was alive with no further injuries.

"Where are the others?" she asked hoarsely, as Dan helped her up.

Dan grimaced. "Nate is fine and so is Blair. I haven't seen neither of the two flight attendants, but the pilot is alive, despite rather serious injuries."

"And Chuck? Why haven't you mentioned Chuck?" She was aware that Dan and Chuck weren't exactly best friends, but she knew he wouldn't not give a crap about Chuck in such a situation.

"I don't know." He looked sad somehow, as if he was delivering bad news.

And a bit behind the burning wreck of the jet, she saw them. Blair, Nate, Chuck and the pilot. Blair was standing with her hands crossed, looking quite pissed off and Nate was kneeling by Chuck. Serena hurried over to them.

Chuck's eyes were closed and he was almost as pale as the sand. But the faint movement of his chest revealed that he was still breathing. Serena knelt down beside Nate and gasped in horror as she saw the blood blooming over Chuck's chest.

"He's just bluffing," Blair snorted in the distance. "You know Basses, S, they can't survive without drama."

Serena fought the surges of dark panic that rolled over her. "B, I don't think he's bluffing at all. It looks pretty serious." There had been many times when she had wanted to kill Chuck with her own hands, but now she realized that over the past few years he had really become a part of her family, and she wanted to lose him as little as she wanted to lose Dan or Blair.

Nate didn't seem to know what to do, and since Blair was simply standing there doing nothing, she decided to take the matter of helping Chuck into her own hands. Dan had already taken the initiative of tending to the pilot. For a moment she forgot about everything else and was filled with awe and admiration for Dan and his bravery and ability to help other people. Then, she turned her attention back to Chuck.

"B, here's what you're going to do – throw sand over the burning fuselage so that it'll stop burning. And once it has – if it's safe – go inside and get the first-aid kit. Nate, you go look if there are any bags that have landed in the water. If there are, bring all the clothes of one to me."

When she noticed they hadn't moved, she turned to them and shouted: "Now!" and that finally set them into motioned.

She looked at Chuck. How could she help him when she could barely put a band-aid over a wound by herself? She couldn't be a hero. She was a selfish, Elle and Vogue-reading upper class brat who hadn't the first idea about medicine. But still, she felt some kind of new power inside her, telling her that she could do this and that she _would _do this. Chuck couldn't die because of her inability to perform heroically in a dire situation.

Staring at the wound, she sighed. Sooner or later, she would have to begin.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

><p>Dusk settled over the beach. The sky became cerise and orange and the sun was scarlet and enormous as it was slowly eaten up by the horizon. A little cooler winds drifted from the Pacific Ocean. Dan rubbed the cut on his face, ignoring the pain. Even though he was exhausted, he couldn't bring himself to sleep.<p>

So much had happened.

He had managed to save the pilot. She was breathing now, even if only barely – a branch had gone through her stomach. He had somehow managed to stop the bleeding, but he didn't know the severity of the injury and what organ it had torn up. He wasn't a doctor – and she needed one.

Chuck had fared a bit better than her. His leg had been broken by the pressure of the fall, and Serena had discovered that a couple of his ribs were broken as well, explaining the bleeding as one of them had cut open his skin, though apart from that he was fine. But Dan suspected he would limp for the rest of his life if he didn't go to a real doctor in the nearest 24 hours.

After tending to the pilot, he had taken a look at their new whereabouts. It was an island for sure, a small one, with a patch of jungle in the middle. Dan suspected it would just take about two days to circle the whole island. And so far there hadn't been a sign of civilization, so they were even more screwed than they had been when the plane was about the crash.

Right now, Blair, Nate, Serena and Chuck were sleeping and the pilot was in a coma-like state. Nate had managed to find most of their bags and Blair had gotten out a couple of first-aid kits out of the fuselage, which had stopped burning long ago. Dan shuddered at the thought of spending very much time on this deserted island.

He lay down on the soft sand and looked up into the star-filled sky. He wanted to be home in Brooklyn, but there was nothing he could do at the moment; all he could do was hope that a ship would come or a plane or a helicopter.

And wait.

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><p><strong><em>Music: Down by Jason Walker<em>**

**Comments, praise or criticism, are always welcome and so is following this story! Please help to change this story for the better; authors are always blind to their own mistakes!**

**Goodbye and good luck,**

**CheeseSwiss**


	2. Someone Like You

**Hi!**

**It took me a while to update since other matters coming in between, but thankfully here it is: a new chapter! Yay!**

**Big Thank You to all those who have commented and followed and read!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two: Someone like you<strong>

**(Disclaimer: I own none of the characters except Eliot the pilot)**

It hurt to breathe.

Every breath felt like thousands of nails puncturing his lungs, especially on the left side of his chest. His leg felt exactly as it was; shattered, there was really no other word for it. He was in his self-made cocoon of pain and fire – until Blair came.

He slowly opened his eyes, like one would slowly open one's curtains one rainy morning. The sky was soft and blue. A warm North Pacific Ocean breeze swept over him. He found he couldn't enjoy it's coolness; his leg and ribs started to burn furiously. The violence of the fire made his hands shake.

"Are you OK, Chuck?" a quiet voice said to his right.

He turned his head slowly and saw - Blair. He swallowed – he didn't want her to see him like this. He was _the _Chuck Bass, not a cripple, but now she could only see him as one. The worst thing was that he couldn't just stand up and flee from Blair's piercing gaze – because of his stupid shattered leg he was stuck in one place.

She looked fine for someone who had just crashed on a deserted island. She probably had found her comb; her hair was neatly woven into a braid without a hair sticking out, and she had changed, too, from the flowery dress she had worn in the plane, into an orange summer skirt and white blouse. She was as pretty as always. And it pained him even worse than his leg to know that it was _his _fault that their relationship had blown apart.

Suddenly he gathered all his remaining courage and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Waldorf… have you been… _crying?_"

The warm, tender expression vanished momentarily from her face. Her eyes turned to slits. "Waldorf women don't do crying, _Bass!"_ Behind the brick wall she had built up in front of her he could see the hurt, still raw.

He winced and wondered what made him say such stupid things sometimes. All he wanted was to say the right things, do the right things, make Blair love him. But for some reason his mouth seemed to have a life of its own and never listened to his heart or mind. He realized with a dull jolt that because of this, he and Blair would probably never happen. He would never wake up to find her lying beside him. He would never get to hear her say _"I love you" _before he went to work. He would never get to tell her he loved her either. Though he wanted to, though he so desperately needed to.

Love was all he had ever wished for – but love had never been meant for him.

He couldn't stand to have her so close but still out of reach so he snapped at her: "Leave me alone, Blair! Or do you want to embarrass yourself further by telling me those _special _three words."

He was disgusted with himself when he saw something break in Blair's eyes. She stared at him for a while, then turned abruptly and ran up the beach and out of sight behind the fuselage.

And he kept lying there on the cold sand, breathing shallowly, wondering why he kept doing this to himself and to Blair. There was a demon inside him and there was a kind-hearted Chuck. The demon seemed to want to keep him in the dark and for now it was winning over the kind-hearted Chuck who stood no chance against the evilness of the demon.

He closed his eyes and didn't see dawn break.

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><p>Serena slowly opened her eyes to see dawn color the sky cerise and orange. Every inch of her body throbbed and so did the lump on her forehead, but for some reason she found she didn't care about that. It was as if the old Serena van der Woodsen, who would've complained about the slightest scratch, was gone and in her place the new Serena had arisen, valiant and caring. This new Serena didn't care about Elle magazines anymore or wondering which dress she should wear that evening. She presumed that only in a situation like this did one discover one's true colors. And she loved her true colors, because they were beautiful.<p>

Perhaps the plane crash hadn't been so bad after all. Then she remembered the damage it had created; a wounded Chuck and a lethally-injured pilot. The fuselage had burned to a crisp. Dan had already been inside to check if the radio was still working, in vain. They could only hope that a plane would pass over them or a helicopter or a ship. Or that somebody would search after them.

She stood up and looked over the beach. Dan and Nate were sleeping on the torn rescue boats from the plane. Blair was sitting by the edge of the water, staring out into the ocean with an empty gaze. Serena decided not to bother her.

Chuck was breathing raggedly when she came to visit him. She saw that the bandages that she had put over his chest and leg were wet with blood. It was clear by the mere sight of him that he was in great pain. She wished there was something she could do, but there was nothing. There were no morphine pills in the first-aid kits they had found, just a few painkillers that would bring nothing to Chuck. She glanced at his leg and grimaced. There was no way she could mend _that_. It looked as if a shark chewed up his leg and then left it after a while.

After giving Chuck some water to drink and changing his bandages, she moved on to the pilot, by whom she wasn't sure if she was awake or not. Her eyes were closed, her face covered in scratches. Serena suddenly realized that there was a great possibility that the poor pilot would die. And Serena didn't even know her name.

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><p>The sun was starting to burn. Nate opened his eyes and groaned. This was worse than any hangover; it felt like someone was beating on his head with a hammer and everything was brighter than it was supposed to be. All that had happened yesterday came to his mind in a rush. Plane crash. Chuck – his best friend – wounded. Blair complaining about her shoes getting sandy. Serena trying to help Chuck and the injured, nameless pilot. Dan rushing in and out of the fuselage.<p>

He realized he was hungry only when he sat up. It was as if a big empty hole opened up in his stomach; he hadn't eaten anything since getting on the plane and that had been some 24 hours ago. He looked towards the luggage but then shook his head. None of them had brought food, and even if they had, the saltwater had probably destroyed it by now. And all the food in the fuselage was ashes.

A cold wave of fear rolled over him as he realized he would have to enter the jungle. The task didn't seem enticing; in this part of the world, one couldn't really be sure what hid in the green depths of these forests. Poisonous frogs, flesh-eating flowers, dangerous animals, you name it. Nate had been born and raised in Manhattan – he doubted he would be able to fight a beast if it attacked him. Still, someone had to get something to eat, so Nate reluctantly stood up, brushed the sand of his jeans, and ventured into the lush forest.

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><p>The whole day Dan spent trying to help the pilot, but as morning turned to day and day to evening, he understood that her life was literally running out into the sand. The bleeding in her stomach had started again. He recalled reading some anatomy books in high school, but it only provided him with little knowledge. He absolutely didn't want the pilot – whose name he had found out was Eliot – to die, but he also had no idea how to help her.<p>

Sighing, he looked out over the Pacific ocean. The sun was already going down and dark was hastily rolling in. He realized this was the second night they'd be spending here on this deserted island. Hopefully this would be their last night here, in the sense that they'd get rescued in the morning. But Dan had a feeling that that would not happen. At least not for a few more days and in that time Eliot could and probably _would _die.

He turned back to her. Her eyes were closed, her skin waxen in the evening light. Just to be sure he pressed a mirror against her mouth and when it was covered in steam, he was reassured she was still breathing. For now. "How can I help you?" he asked half-loud, taking her cold hand in his.

Right beside, Serena was tending to Chuck, who was awake and in great pain. Serena suddenly looked up from Chuck's injuries and gazed straight at Dan.

There was a flicker of love in her eyes and then the hopelessness of their situation drowned it. A tear fell over her cheek. "I don't know what to do, Dan."

He didn't know either, but still he said: "Serena, listen to me: everything's gonna be all right, OK? We're going to get through this and nobody's going to die. Tomorrow or soon we're going to get rescued as well. If we build a fire, planes and helicopters and ships and freighters can spot us. Chuck and Eliot will be taken care of by real doctors. We're going to be absolutely fine." The lie was so wonderful that he ended up believing in it himself.

Serena nodded, turned away and rubbed her face with the sleeve of her shirt. "OK. I'm going to ask Nate if he can help me make a bonfire. Find Blair and see if she can help Chuck." She stood up, ran up the beach and disappeared behind the fuselage.

Dan gave Eliot once last wavering glance and then went on his search for Blair. He found her lying on her suitcases - Louis Vuitton of course – reading a water-damaged copy of Little Women. As she came, she looked at him briefly without any interest being mirrored in her brown eyes, before she continued to read her book.

"Can you please relieve yourself from your important duty and help me, Blair?" he asked cautiously. Blair Waldorf was like a mine field. If you stepped on the wrong spot, she would explode right into your face.

"Humphrey, you're obscuring the sun and I'd like to get a tan before this little island visit is over," she snapped back without even looking up from her book.

"It's Chuck," he said. "Don't you care about him? Don't you want to help him?"

Blair shrugged. "That _Bass-_tard deserves it."

He frowned. "I know you're cold, Blair, but surely you aren't that emotionless…"

Red spread over her cheeks and he knew he had stepped on a mine when she threw away the book and glared at him venomously.

But Serena came valiantly to his rescue before any damage could come to him. Dan smiled – a smile which was immediately wiped away when he saw the expression on Serena's face.

She was pale as a ghost and her eyes wild as she said:

"Nate's gone."

* * *

><p>When the sky started to turn dark, Nate realized he was screwed. The forest was disproportionately big for such a small island. In search of food he had gone deeper and deeper into the lush green wilderness until he could no longer find his way back to beach.<p>

And now night was rushing towards him in breakneck speed. If he didn't find his way back before the last rays of sun lit the world, he'd have to spend the night in the forest, and he wasn't very keen on that. There were mosquitoes, there were roots you could trip over in the dark, and worst of all – there were the nocturnal hunters. And these wild animals scared the hell out of him.

"Serena! Dan! Blair! Chuck!" he yelled.

No reply.

Adrenalin filling his blood, he started to run, and once he had started, he didn't stop.

He didn't know which direction he ran; thank his stupidity he had no idea that the sun always went down in the West. Well, he did know _that _- but that didn't exactly help him with the other directions. He blamed it on the exotic forest – the thick, humid air was making him more confused than he usually was.

Suddenly the trees cleared and he came out onto a beach.

Palms swayed in the wind. Waves crashed against the sand.

There was no fuselage, no Serena, no Dan, no Blair, no Chuck. Nobody, nothing.

He was utterly alone.

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><p><strong><em>Music: Someone Like You by Adele<em>**

**Comments, praise or criticism, are always welcome and so is following this story! Please help to change this story for the better; authors are always blind to their own mistakes!**

**Goodbye and good luck,**

**CheeseSwiss**


	3. Run

**Hello!**

**A new chapter of _Darling _has arrived! Yay!**

**Heartfelt thanks to the people who comment, follow and read!**

**Chapter Three: Run**

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><p><strong>(Disclaimer: I own none of the characters except Eliot)<strong>

Alone.

A warm nocturnal breeze caressed Nate's cheek as he paced up and down the beach. In the dark, he didn't see much, but heard the crash of the waves and the crickets playing in the jungle. Occasionally there was also a sharp snap of a twig that made him jump. He picked up two branches lying on the sand and tried to rub them against each other to create a little friction, without much success of course. His nervousness made his movements clumsy and weak. Growling with fury, he threw the two branches to the ground and continued pacing up and down the beach.

Then he sat down and tried to think properly, which was made difficult by the sounds of the night and the humidity of the air. Perhaps he'd find the others by following the shoreline – the island couldn't be that large after all. He could reach the fuselage in a day and a half or less. The problem was that he had no food, no water, and in this tropical climate, you got dehydrated pretty quickly. He was wise enough to not drink sea water and he'd rather not venture into the jungle at night to search for springs or streams with fresh water. In other words, things didn't look to bright.

After a lot of thinking, he decided to stay on this beach and wait for dawn's early light. He knew the sun would renew his hopes and a clear, blue sky would give him clarity so that he'd know what to do next. So he lay down on the soft white sand and closed his eyes. _Dawn_, he thought, _at dawn I will find my way back. _Then he fell asleep.

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><p>Dan blinked. "What do you mean he's gone? Where could he have possibly gone?"<p>

Serena's lower lip trembled, as if she was about to cry. "I don't know, Dan. I don't remember him going anywhere. He was here in the morning at least. But I just looked around everywhere, and he's nowhere to be seen. Not even Chuck has seen him."

Dan's gaze wandered over the lush jungle behind them. Could Nate have gone inside? Maybe to search for food or fresh water. There was such a possibility. He told this to Serena, and she nodded, frowning. "If he's lost, we have to find him. Who knows what's out there." Dan saw her shudder and wished he could wrap his arms around her.

"All right. I'll go look for him," Dan said. He understood that he had no choice. Besides, Nate had been or was his friend. Dan owed him as much as guide him back to their makeshift camp on this beach.

"But what if you'll disappear too," Serena mumbled in a hushed tone, almost in a whisper.

Before he knew what he was doing he took her hand and squeezed it. "I wont, I promise. And I'll bring Nate back."

Serena closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again, and her blue eyes seemed a little brighter than before. "OK. Look, I'm going to get you a couple of stuff. You wait here." Then she ran off, her golden-blonde hair fluttering in the wind.

Dan sighed, then turned to Blair, who had crossed her arms and looked at him as disapprovingly as always. "It's insane going inside there, you know."

He shrugged in reply. "Well, somebody's got to do it, right? If Serena disappeared in the jungle, wouldn't you go after her?"

She stared at him scathingly for a while, the snorted. "Whatever, Humphrey. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some beauty sleep I have to catch up on." And she walked off as pompously as always.

Dan smiled. He knew he had won over Blair this time. She tried to hide it, but he knew she had a warm, sensitive heart. He knew she cared and loved and felt. She probably tried to deny it so much because she was afraid she'd get hurt. And he realized that he loathed Chuck for being such an asshole towards her and turning her into a vain bitch.

Serena came back with a backpack that he immediately slung over his shoulders. Serena grimaced a little as they walked over to the edge of the jungle. "Are you going now?" she asked, worry crackling in her voice. "Maybe you should wait for dawn after all."

Dan put a hand on her shoulder. Her skin was warm after the day of sunshine. "No, it's better this way. Besides, don't worry, I'll be fine. Just try to convince Blair to help you with Chuck and Eliot, it's too much work for you alone." Then, before he could change his mind, he entered the jungle.

* * *

><p>For the first time since the crash, there was a change in the pattern. Chuck was delightfully surprised. The waves of pain where coming less often now and they weren't so bad. Or maybe things were exactly the same and he had just developed a system to better cope with the agony.<p>

He could breathe normally now. His lungs didn't burn so severely. And he could move. Only his leg hurt as much as before, the whole glass-shard thing. He knew that his leg wouldn't change unless he got real medical care. For the first time in his short, pathetic life he longed for a hospital. It was almost funny how deep his life had sunk.

"How are you feeling?"

He opened his eyes. Serena hovered over him, her blonde mane illuminated by a flashlight by Chuck's head, her blue eyes serene.

He shrugged feebly. "Better." Perhaps physically he was healing, but mentally he knew that he had lost himself in his own darkness. He had snapped at Blair because he didn't want her to get hurt, but that had hurt her just as bad. And that proved that he could do nothing right. His masochistic behavior was causing everyone in his near presence to suffer.

Serena's gaze flickered over to his shattered leg. She bit her lip, looking almost like the small, innocent girl he had once known and she had once been. "I don't know what to do, Chuck."

"Is it bad?" he asked, completely unnecessary because he already knew.

Serena grimaced. "It's bad."

Chuck sighed. He realized that though he felt better, his life was still hanging on the last few strands of a ribbon. Everything depended on his leg. If it started bleeding again, or if it would get infected, things would turn from bad to worse. Perhaps they'd even have to amputate the leg. Chuck winced and tried to imagine himself walking with an artificial limb for the rest of his life. The image didn't go very well with the image he had of himself as Chuck Bass. And his father would probably not be able to look at him at all anymore.

"But help is coming, Chuck," Serena said after a moment of silence. He liked the conviction in her voice and was half-reassured. "I don't know what'll happen with your leg but I can promise you one thing; you're not going to die, not here on this island."

Chuck nodded feebly. He wanted to believe in her, so half of him did. But if he wasn't going to die on this island, why did it feel like a part of him was already dying?

* * *

><p>Dan pushed branches and leaves out of his way as he headed through the wild jungle. Even with the flashlight, he felt uncertain about walking through the forest at night. Already twice had he gotten bitten by some insects he hadn't even heard the name of, and occasionally he heard a snarl or a snap of a twig behind a tree that made him jump and nearly drop his flashlight. Perhaps it was his paranoia playing tricks on him. Perhaps – and more believingly – it was real.<p>

He began to wonder why he had wandered into the jungle in the first place; things seemed to loose their purpose here in the dark, green depths. _For Nate_, he tried to make himself think, but his mind felt like a thick, syrupy mass. Water would have helped but he tried not to drink too much and spare some for Nate who was undoubtedly dying of thirst.

But then doubts started creeping upon his mind: Was Nate really worth putting his life at risk? Would Nate do the same or let Dan die? And maybe karma played its part in this whole jungle drama – Nate wasn't exactly a golden boy. He had done things in his life Dan presumed he wasn't so proud of. But that didn't necessarily have to mean he had to die on this deserted island for it.

Dan rubbed his forehead, annoyed. He hadn't imagined it would be so difficult to journey through a freaking _jungle_. But it apparently it was. And furthermore, Dan realized, he had no idea where he was going. Well, to find Nate – but _where _was Nate? He could be anywhere on the island. Dan shuddered at the thought of searching the _whole _island even if it wasn't that big.

Suddenly a noise to his right made him stop. It was like a _voice_, whispering something over and over again, only Dan couldn't hear exactly what the voice said.

It was haunting to hear someone whisper in the jungle at dark. Chills ran down Dan's spine. His heartbeat accelerated and sweat pearled on his forehead. He fought the urge to turn and run for his life.

"Nate?"

His voice echoed in the jungle, sounding quite… pathetic. The whispers stopped, but there was no reply. So it wasn't Nate. There was something else in the jungle, something bad.

His hand slipped into his pocket and brought out the Swiss army knife that lay hidden there. If it was a beast or animal of some kind, he wasn't going down without a fight. He hadn't exactly been raised to fight dangerous animals in Brooklyn, but he knew that when life puts you in lethal situations, there's no telling what you'll do to survive.

Slowly, taking care not to step on any twigs or crunchy objects, he started walking towards the source of the noise. The whispering had started again and now he could also hear the words… _Dan, Nate, Serena, Blair, Chuck, Vanessa, Lily, Rufus, Cece, Jonathan. _

It was like a punch in the stomach. But still, Dan went on, curiosity winning over common sense.

Suddenly he stepped out into a clearing where the star-stained sky was laid bare and exotic flowers grew. At the end of the clearing there was a great heap of boulders and a fountain that rushed over it and continued into a happy little stream that disappeared into the jungle.

Dan almost smiled until he saw the shape by the fountain. It seemed to glow in the moonlight, a pearl-white, shimmery haze.

Transfixed by the haunting and yet mesmerizing sight, he moved forward until only a couple of feet divided them apart.

The shape was a girl, a girl with long, white-blonde hair.

Dan felt his stomach churn and flashlight drop.

The girl raised her head and looked at him with blue eyes lined black.

Jenny.

* * *

><p><strong>I know, I know. It's crazy, it's wild, it's preposterous and mad. But just trust me and maybe you'll like what I have in store for our Gossip Girl gang.<strong>

**_Music: Run by Leona Lewis_**

**Comments, praise or criticism, are always welcome and so is following this story! Please help to change this story for the better; authors are always blind to their own mistakes!**

**Goodbye and good luck,**

**CheeseSwiss**


	4. Wind of Change

**Hola!**

**I'm sorry for delaying the fourth chapter so much, but now that summer is nearly by I guess the updates will come with less spaces inbetween.**

**Gracias all the people who comment, follow and read!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four. Wind Of Change<strong>

**(I own none of the characters except Eva)**

Jenny.

_Jenny_.

She smiled, but her eyes were void of emotion; cold and empty.

He blinked.

And she was gone again.

He felt sick and confused and dizzy, so he stumbled to the stream, knelt by it and scooped up fresh ice-cold water in his hands that he poured over his face and into his mouth. It tasted good and it brought him clarity.

At least she hadn't been real – that was the only thing that comforted him. She had just been a mere vision, a hallucination. Maybe it was because of the heat and humidity and dehydration that he had seen her. But she had not been real. He didn't know what he would have done if she really _had _been there, the real Jenny.

When he finally had gotten himself together again and filled his half-empty water bottles with water from the stream, he stood up. His legs still felt a little unsteady, but he felt ready to search after Nate and bring him back to the others.

That was priority. He could think about the Jenny-vision and what it meant later.

* * *

><p>Dawn began to break over the ocean.<p>

Serena looked out over the moderately calm waters, saw the ocean rise and sink as if it was breathing. The sky was cobalt and there was not a cloud to be seen. Neither airplanes nor helicopters nor anything that would help them get off this deserted isle and return home.

An almost claustrophobic feeling came over her. She didn't want to spend her whole life here in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by nothing but an endless mass of water. She didn't want to die here. But as far as she knew, this island really _was _in the middle of nowhere and rescue wasn't coming anytime soon.

If they were lucky the island was located somewhere close to the Hawaiian islands and a ship or cruise would come driving by. If they were _not _lucky however, which was exactly what Serena feared, they were just outside of a fairway.

"Serena," a voice said, distracting her from her troubling thoughts.

She turned round.

It was Chuck, having woken up. A little color had returned to his skin and he looked normal for someone who had just broken his leg. He even supported himself up on one elbow as he repeated Serena's name, making Serena hopeful again. Perhaps it was a good omen that Chuck was getting better.

"Do you have some water?" he said.

She grimaced. "I'm afraid we don't have much. But I'll go see if there is anything."

She rose and wandered up the beach. Without Dan and Nate, it was a little empty, making the horrible sooty fuselage even more haunting than usual.

Just by the edge of the jungle, Dan had put one of the food trolleys. There was not much food; most having been destroyed by the saltwater, but there were at least ten more small bottles with Evian. The rest was probably floating somewhere out in the ocean.

As she made her way back to Chuck, she saw movement in the corner of her eyes. She turned.

It was Blair. She seemed to have some project going on on one side of the fuselage; carrying out airplane chairs from the wreck and fixing them so that they lay horizontally alongside each other. When she was done with that she started tying cloths together. As Serena came, Blair looked up hastily, looking mildly irritated, as if Serena was intruding.

"What're you doing?" Serena asked, trying to sound as friendly and kind as she could, but a smile was not far away from her voice. It was just so odd to see Blair doing something that looked like a crafts project… odd to see her so concentrated and _bohemian_.

"You'll see," Blair said with another brief, annoyed glance at Serena. "I've read out all my magazines and I'm not exactly going to find a paper stand on this island."

"But it's very early, B. Aren't you tired?"

"That's the _point," _Blair replied in a sharp voice. "I _am _hellishly tired and if I keep going for much longer I'll get dark rings under my eyes, but I simply _refuse _to sleep on the sand again, it's beyond my integrity. So I've decided to make proper beds."

Serena raised her hands in surrender. "Alright, I won't bother you more. Just make sure you drink water once in a while and don't overwork yourself."

Before she left, she could hear Blair mutter behind her: "_I've already overworked myself by simply being here._"

Chuck drank deeply from the Evian bottle until there was just a couple of inches left and then sat up, even more shine returning to his eyes. If Serena would have given him a comb, a tie and a crisp new shirt he would have looked his usual well-groomed self.

"Where's Nate? Humphrey?" He looked at the fuselage, as if expecting them to pop out of the windows and wave.

"Nate disappeared in the jungle and Dan's gone after him. Hopefully they'll both come back alive."

"You're worried," Chuck remarked smoothly. His gaze briefly flickered over to his leg and he winced, making Serena feel even more sorry for him.

"Of course I'm worried. Who knows what's out there. Wild animals, rotten trees that could fall over them. Other people."

Chuck combed his hair with his fingers making it even more messy and sandy. "I doubt there's anyone out here. If there were they would have come running here to check on the crashed airplane. Anyway," his gaze swept over the beach and swaying palms and the ocean. "When I come to think of it, this place is a perfect location for an exclusive luxury hotel for celebrities who want to be in peace."

Serena playfully swatted him on the arm. "We're stuck on a deserted island after our plane just crashed and all you can think about is business and hotels?"

Chuck shrugged. "Well, it helps keep my mind of this _traumatic _situation for a while. And since there's nothing else to do anyway, I might as well keep planning for the future Deserted Island Resort."

Serena snorted, but decided to leave him and his hotel plans alone for a moment. If thinking about business helped him cope, he should better do it.

And in the meantime, she had to figure out a couple of things herself.

* * *

><p>Dan found Nate lying on a small beach, sleeping soundly. Instead of waking Nate harshly, he decided to let him wake up on his own. There was no hurry anyway. On this island they had all time in the world.<p>

And he had finally some peace to think things over. Like the Jenny-thing. Even now, on the sunsplashed beach, he shuddered when reviving the memory.

Why had he seen her? Why her? She was just his ordinary but yet not-so-ordinary rebellious sister. Still, he was sure that he had seen her for a reason as there is a purpose to all things. It didn't make any more sense knowing _that_ though.

This island was slowly creeping him out. It was pretty of course, as a Pacific island can only be, with long, white beaches and green palms, a jungle writhing with life and the ever-blue ocean, but it was strange… wrong somehow. And most importantly, it wasn't Brooklyn. It wasn't _home_.

Dan wondered if his and everyone else's families had started to suspect something was wrong. Probably not. They wouldn't question why neither Dan nor the others had answered any phone calls or messages; going to Hawaii had been an excuse to get away from the hectic life in New York, and therefore their parents had reason to believe that their kids just wanted to be left alone a while.

Unless, of course, they had already heard about the plane disappearing by the news or Chuck's company or any other source.

But even if they knew, help was unlikely to come soon. Maybe they would send out a helicopter or a small jet to search, but the island was probably one green speck amongst many and they hadn't built a fire to send a signal. Which, when Dan came to think of it, was a good idea; a nice good old bonfire would probably be seen from even great heights.

Nate started to move where he lay on the sand beside Dan. Slowly, he opened his eyes and blinked and then turned his head so that he stared at Dan. "Hello," Nate said sleepily. "Where did you come from?"

"When you didn't come back we went after you of course," Dan said, brought a water bottle out of his bag and handed it to Nate. "I guess you didn't need my help after all since you were taking a nice long nap."

Nate scratched his head and looked confused (which occurred very often). "I was tired."

"Yeah you were," Dan joked, but decided not to go further into the matter. What had driven Nate to go alone through the jungle in the dark could preferably stay Nate's business. At least for a while.

Nate rolled the bottle in his hands. "This water isn't from the airplane – it tastes differently. Where did you get it?"

Dan sighed.

"Let me show you."

* * *

><p>After a while of just sitting and watching the ocean mirror the rising sunlight, Serena decided to go make breakfast. The smartest thing would have been going to sleep, even if it was a little too late for that, and regain her energy, but she felt it was necessary to keep an eye out for Chuck and Eliot. So that nothing happened.<p>

"Are you hungry, Chuck?" she asked. She wasn't really sure what this yet-hypothetical breakfast would include since there was practically no food but she was sure that if she searched long enough that she could find at least a couple of vacuum-sealed packages with treats that hadn't been torn up and filled up with saltwater during the crash.

No reply.

Serena turned and looked why he wasn't answering.

His eyes were closed and his face empty of color. A trickle of blood ran down from his nose.

Ice-cold panic gripped her. She rushed to him and shook him by the shoulders.

"Chuck!"

He didn't respond.

Her heart hammering wildly in her chest she fumbled after his pulse and in her frightened state nearly missed it.

One beat.

Two beats.

Three beats.

Then, nothing.

* * *

><p><strong>I left you hanging there a bit, didn't I? ;)<strong>

**_Music: Wind of Change by the Scorpions_**

**Comments, praise or criticism, are always welcome and so is following this story! Please help to change this story for the better; authors are always blind to their own mistakes!**

**Until next time, adios amigos!**

**Goodbye and good luck,**

**CheeseSwiss  
><strong>


	5. The Only Exception

**Hi!**

**First of all, thank you so much those who comment, follow and read!**

**Second of all, I hope you aren't too impatient with me for not updating very often!**

**Now that that is cleared, let me present the fifth chapter of _Darling:_**

**Chapter Five. The Only Exception**

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><p><strong>(I own none of the characters except Eliot)<strong>

This _death _lasted less than a minute long, but less than a minute was enough for Serena to feel paralyzed with panic, pain, guilt and a whole other flood of feelings.

During this moment the crash of the waves boomed in her ears, the rustle of the wind sliced her eardrums, but it was the quiet and stillness of Chuck's pulse that hurt most of all.

"You can't die Chuck," she whispered and started searching for his pulse again, the way a drunk might search for the last drop of alcohol in a bottle even if he knows it's not there. "You can't do that to Blair, mom, _me."_

And at once, there was a faint beat under her fingers. She swallowed the knot in her throat, finding it extremely hard to believe that he was perhaps not dead after all. That he was alive. Would be alive.

Her purse was right beside her (it was also where she kept parts of the medicine from the jet) and she rummaged in it for the tiny mirror she used to check and adjust her makeup. Pressing the glass against Chuck's lips, she waited half a minute, and when she removed it, his breath had fogged it up. He was breathing then, too. Good. More than good.

With a trembling hand Serena wiped the cold sweat off her brow. She had never before felt so relieved in her life. It was bittersweet.

When she had gathered herself enough to breathe normally and steady her shaky hands, she decided to start helping Chuck at once. Just because he survived this obstacle, it didn't mean he would survive others in the state he was in. His heart stopping, even for such a tiny amount of time, was a sign that things were escalating.

Fast.

* * *

><p>When Nate had drunk himself full from the stream and Dan had filled all their water bottles they sat down by the waterfall and wondered what their next move would be.<p>

The heat was taking on and the humidity in the air increased, even if the sun barely reached through the overleaping, dense foliage.

Luckily, the waterfall provided a little coolness for both Dan and Nate, spraying them with its ice cold water. The air was also a little easier to breathe in, here by the water's edge. And Dan could finally think more clearly.

What _would _their next move be? Building a bonfire was already on the checklist. But then what? Start learning how to hunt perhaps, because the jet food wasn't going to last them a week and Dan was pretty sure they'd stay longer than that. Maybe there was fruit around, too, but he had no idea what was poisonous and what was not, so maybe they ought to stay away from what they wouldn't recognize at first glance.

Truth be told, being cast on a deserted island was duller than it had seemed. They only "exciting" events was the plane-crash and Nate wandering into the jungle. And the plane-crash was more traumatic and scary and just plain problematic than "exciting."

But just because things were dull, Dan didn't want an adventure. And adventure usually comes hand in hand with danger, and that was the last things their group of five (plus a dying flight attendant) needed to go through, especially with Chuck injured and all.

Then a new idea shot up into the blue, contradicting his previous thought. Even if the island was small, they hadn't explored all of it. There were still things to explore and figure out, especially if they would stay here a longer time. And they could begin by following the stream. It could either lead them to a little broader band of water or a lake. Depending on what direction they went.

The day was still young, and Dan figured it wouldn't do Serena, Blair and Chuck too much damage if he and Nate stayed in the jungle a little longer.

He proposed this idea to Nate who nodded after pausing to think for a second.

"Who knows?" Nate said and they rose from their comfortable place at the waterfall and wandered yet again into the denser parts of the jungle. "Maybe we'll find something worth finding."

And that was exactly what Dan hoped for.

* * *

><p>The first thing Serena realized was that she wasn't going to be able to do this alone.<p>

Eliot the pilot was still in a coma, even if she wasn't bleeding anymore and her breathing was even.

Dan and Nate were somewhere in the jungle.

That left only Blair, even if B had even less medical experience than Serena. What she was going to try to do was a little like a dishwasher trying to cook a special kind of Japanese fish that could kill you if cooked wrong .

Since there was really no time to lose, Serena bounded up from the sand and ran towards Blair and Blair's little project. Blair looked up as she saw Serena come running, and her eyes were a little milder than before. Again, Serena had the strange feeling that it wasn't her best friend she was seeing but someone who had been hiding _inside _her best friend.

"B, I need your help. It's Chuck."

It was all she said, but it was enough to spur Blair into motion. She tossed the cloths aside that she was tying together and hurried with Serena back to Chuck.

Serena checked his breathing and pulse one more time before she emptied the medical kit on the sand so she could she contents more clearly. An oxygen mask she gave to Blair with the orders to put it over Chuck's mouth. "We need to clear his airways."

Then she also handed her little white pills. "But before you put on the mask, give him a little water from that bottle beside you to swallow down these. It's morphine."

Blair did all things without objection, and when she was done and thought Serena wasn't looking, she even caressed him briefly over his cheek, so much love and care in this simple gesture that Serena felt moved just by looking at them.

"But why does he need the morphine pills _now_?" Blair asked with a frown directed at Serena. "I mean, right now he isn't hurting, is he?" She glanced at Chuck again and worry was clear and wide in her eyes.

Serena moved over to Chuck's leg and gently lowered her hands onto it. It was unsettling to feel blood and bones beneath her palms. "He isn't in pain now, but he will be in a few seconds. And that's when the morphine is going to be needed."

She gripped his leg a little tighter. All she had to do was twist – that was what she tried to tell herself. Easy. Swift. And Chuck would be better at once.

"Hold his shoulders down."

Blair did so, looking even more nervous.

And Serena twisted.

* * *

><p>The faraway cry made Dan and Nate flinch. In the relatively quiet jungle – that was only filled with the cries of birds, frogs and other small animals – it was quite a sound.<p>

"Chuck," Dan and Nate said in unison and looked at each other with worry and bewilderment. The thought of going back came across Dan's mind, but then the counterargument that the girls were there to help popped up in his mind. Or maybe it was just an excuse to go on.

Because between the trees in front of them, Dan could see a sheet of green-turquoise, not the color of the ocean, but the color of a lake. Perhaps it wasn't such an extraordinary thing, but there was some kind of magnetic power that drew him towards it. Pulled him in.

As they cleared the trees, the lake finally came in full view.

It was _marvelous. _The water glittered peacefully under the bright eye of the sun. Ducks and other birds scooped up the sweet water in their beaks and then flew away again to take shelter in the shade of the jungle.

But Dan was still wasn't satisfied. The pull was still strong, and it was drawing him against the middle of the lake. He stumbled to the water's edge and started to take off his shoes, all the while staring at the middle.

Once the sun disappeared behind a cloud, he saw what it was.

It was a stick, pointing out of the water. Not even a stick perhaps, a tube more like it.

The ridiculous idea of a submarine hidden in this lake came across his mind, but he quickly waved it away. And if not ridiculous, the idea was still highly unlikely.

But there definitely was something. And he knew he had to get to it.

He peeled off his shirt and took a step into the water. It was warm and balmy, making him feel like he was taking a bath.

"Dan? What the hell are you doing?" Nate cried from the beach, staring bewildered as Dan began to swim towards the middle.

"I think there's something beneath the surface of this lake," Dan replied over his shoulder.

Then he was too busy swimming and couldn't talk anymore.

The middle came towards him in alarming speed; so excited was he to get to the thing whatever it was. And as he swam closer, his suspicions were confirmed; it definitely was a tube. A tube that was attached to something.

He took a deep breath and dove under the surface.

All sounds faded away, but distant thuds still reached him through the clear, warm water. He opened his eyes and looked at what lay before him.

The sight made him forget everything.

* * *

><p>"Go to sleep S," Blair said in a shaky voice. "You're burnt out. You really need to sleep."<p>

Serena nodded seriously. B _was _right. She was feeling lightheaded and sore and nauseas. Sleep would do her well. Besides, she had bound Chuck's leg with bandages and secured a splint over it so that it would heal properly. She had done enough. And thanks to the morphine, Chuck wasn't feeling _that much _pain anymore. It was just in the beginning, when she had twisted his leg into place. The thought of such pain made her sick.

So much willingly and obediently she left Blair and Chuck and lay down on the makeshift beds Blair had created.

The moment her head touched the cushion, she was fast asleep.

Through a fog of morphine and distant pain, Chuck watched as Blair lay down next to him. She was so beautiful; the sunlight played on her hair, her eyes. And as she looked back at him, there was no fury or anger in her gaze. Just love.

"Aren't you angry?" he mumbled, his voice not strong enough to be loud.

"I forgive you," Blair said as quietly. "You need it."

Then she sneaked her hand into his.

And that was better than all the morphine in the world.

* * *

><p><strong>There are some things I need to correct in this story; in the fourth chapter I accidentally wrote "I own none of the characters except Eva" which is wrong because it is <em>Eliot <em>who's the extra person in this story. Eva is a character from another fanfic and I wrote the fourth chapter directly after a chapter of that story, so things got a bit mixed up. Sorry! **

**And there is also a bit from a previous chapter where I wrote about Chuck's father which is completely absurd because this story takes place _after _his death.**

**Well, anyway, thank you for reading and come again!**

**_Music: The Only Exception by Paramore_**

**Comments, praise or criticism, are always welcome and so is following this story! Please help to change this story for the better; authors are always blind to their own mistakes!**

**Goodbye and good luck,**

**CheeseSwiss**


	6. Two Birds

**Hi!**

**Here's a shortie. I hope you don't mind ^^**

**Big thank-you to the those who review, follow, favorite and read! I owe you!**

**Chapter Six: Two Birds**

* * *

><p><strong>(I own none of the characters except Eliot)<strong>

After Dan had disappeared beneath the surface, an eerie quiet filled the jungle. Nate slumped on the beach, suddenly exhausted, and tried to figure out what reason Dan might have had for doing such a stupid thing. But his mind didn't come to any conclusion and the mosquitoes that buzzed around his bare skin didn't help his cause, either. So he stared at the green, soggy water of the lake and tried to count the logs floating around in it.

He was seldom a pessimistic person, but right at that moment, no happiness could shine inside him. He felt weary of Dan, of the jungle, of this whole freaking catastrophe and would have given all his money away just to be back home, playing PSP or going to the cinemas with Serena.

Serena.

He thought of the sun illuminating her hair, turning it into gold… and her soft skin… and her laugh. In other words – the girl was driving him nuts. Did she even know he liked her so much? Because as far as he knew there were few things that could come in-between her and her love for Dan Humphrey.

In a scarlet flash of hatred, he suddenly wished that Dan would stay in the water and drown. But almost immediately the guilt of thinking that overwhelmed him. He shook his head and tried to think of something else.

Suddenly the calm surface of the lake shattered and Dan shot out of the water like an arrow. He took large gulps of air, sounding like he had been on the verge of drowning, and then grinned broadly at Nate. There was something in his hand, too. A square of black with white dots on it like buttons.

"It's a sat phone, Nate!" Dan yelled, waving the phone so wildly back and forth that for a second Nate was afraid he'd drop it. "A sat phone!"

"Alright, alright! Get back here so we can have a look!" Nate replied back, for some reason not feeling as enthusiastic as he should've been. "No, wait! Throw me the phone. I think too much water will damage it."

He caught it with precision and elegance, a result of years of different ball sports, as Dan threw it to him.

It was indeed a sat phone. Not a very modern one, and it looked quite bulky in the protective plastic it was wrapped in, but when Nate pushed down one of the buttons, the screen lit up briefly, indicating it was working.

And if it was working, they could call for help and then they could go hope. Nate's chest suddenly filled with hope, overthrowing all the earlier gloominess.

Dan began to make his way back to the beach, a little slower than before because he was still trying to regain his breath.

Out of the corner of his eye, Nate saw that one of the logs was silently following the swimming figure.

Wait. Nate looked up again. That didn't make any sense. Logs couldn't _follow _people. Logs couldn't move on their own at all and there was no current in the lake.

All the color and feeling drained from Nate's face as it dawned on him. Not a log. A crocodile.

"Uh, Dan?" Nate said, unable to keep his voice steady.

Dan briefly glanced up. "What?"

"Don't panic, OK? but there's a … a crocodile behind you."

Dan quickly glanced over his shoulder. When he turned to Nate again, his eyes were wide open and his face void of color. "Oh no. Oh no. Oh no."

The crocodile was still a bit away from him, but Nate had a feeling that had nothing to do with its ability of speed. The crocodile was simply confident that Dan couldn't escape from him, so it was playing with him.

Carefully laying down the sat phone on the sand, Nate desperately looked around for a sharp rock or something else that could be used as a weapon. He didn't really believe he had the chance of killing the crocodile, but he wasn't exactly going to stand around and watch his friend being shredded to pieces, either.

In the meantime, the croc was gaining on Dan, despite him swimming like an athlete.

Nate found a razor-sharp rock the size of his fist by the edge of the water and threw it at the crocodile without a minute's hesitation.

It bounced off the crocodile's hard skin, leaving just a scratch. The crocodile opened its mouth in frustration and showed its long rows of very, _very_ sharp-looking teeth. Nate winced and Dan let curses stream freely out of his mouth.

"Just a couple more meters, Dan. Come on!" Nate shouted, meaning it to sound encouraging, but instead it just sounded pathetic. He already picked up the next rock.

And in that moment the crocodile decided to finally come out of its laziness. With alarming force it lunged forward and snapped at the water just inches away from Dan's feet.

Nate threw the rock he was holding. This time it landed squarely between the crocodile's eyes and tore up a large, bloody wound. And the extra seconds the croc used to regain focus was enough for Dan to swim the last meter to the beach and scramble up on it with the help of Nate.

But that wasn't the end of it. The crocodile was now pissed, and Nate should have understood that it wouldn't just give up so easily.

Still quick and agile, it shot up the beach and threw itself at Dan. His calf suddenly in the crocodile's mouth, Dan fell forward. Without any hurry, the croc started dragging Dan back into the water.

But Nate wasn't quite done with it yet, either. He took hold of a stick lying nearby, snapped it in half and stabbed the crocodile with the sharp edge. The croc gave a sound that sound like something between a croak and a groan and let go of Dan's leg. Again, Nate had barely wounded it and it recovered in half a minute.

But half a minute was all Nate needed to snatch the sat phone from the ground, pull Dan up and rush towards the jungle.

The croc could have continued after them, but instead it just stared at them as they ran with sly, unblinking eyes. Then it turned and slid silently back into the water. Maybe it believed that it would be _better luck next time_.

As soon as Nate was sure the danger was over, he stopped running and collapsed against a tree. The sat phone rolled out of his hand. Dan, on the other hand, slowly got up. He looked dazed. "Well, that was crazy."

"At least we made it," he then added and glanced at the sat phone.

Then his eyes suddenly dropped to his leg. Dark stains were spreading over the denim. "Oh," was all he said. Then he closed his eyes and fell to the ground.

And as Nate sat there, horrified and paralyzed with shock, wondering what he ought to do next, the phone began to ring.

* * *

><p><strong>So what's gonna' happen next, hm?<strong>

**_Music: Two Birds by Regina Spektor (how I love that song)_**

**Feel free to review, comment, follow and favourite!**

**I need you to know that especially comments are to me like cookies and I'm a cookie addict. So don't be shy. Whether it's constructive cricitsm, random hatemail, praise, say something so I'll know. Besides, authors are often blind to their own mistakes, so help me out!**

**Goodbye and good luck,**

**CheeseSwiss**


	7. You and I

**Dear Fanfiction-readers,**

**I want thank you for following, reading and reviewing my story and I hope you aren't too impatient with me for updating as slowly as a slug passes a street. It means a lot, so thanks again!**

**Anyway, here we have the sixth chapter, ladies and gentlemen:**

**Chapter Seven. You and I**

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><p><strong>(Disclaimer: I own none of the characters except Eliot and none of the characters own me)<strong>

Suddenly clouds covered the sky and it started to rain heavily.

Nate had heard of these abrupt bursts of rain – they were typical for the jungle. But knowing that didn't make him like them any more; in less than a minute he was soaked to the skin and began to freeze.

On top of that the phone was _ringing_, Dan was _bleeding _and he felt like he had woken up from the worst hangover _ever_. He felt nauseas, his head was spinning and the damn rain didn't help his cause exactly.

He wondered if he should pick up the phone and answer. But he had no idea who was calling. It could be someone of help. But it could also be someone who was better off not knowing what they were doing with the phone in the first place. For all Nate knew, they could have crashed into a secret military facility and the phone was to be used only in classified missions.

But he couldn't let their perhaps single chance of getting out of here go to waste.

He pressed the green button and held the phone to his ear, listening intently.

"Hello?" He asked, a little uncertain.

No reply.

Nate heard only the whisper of the rain on the leaves, croaks of frogs and other jungle noises. But the caller was silent. And it didn't matter how long Nate waited – there was still nothing on the other side. After a while, the quiet began to creep him out, so he hurriedly pressed the red button and threw the phone as far away from himself as he could.

No help there, then.

He leaned his back against a palm tree and tried to recollect himself.

Eventually, the rain subsided and sunshine filtered through the dense leafwork above him. Heat returned to the jungle again and soon the air was of its original state – moist and warm.

He turned his attention to Dan, suddenly remembering a good friend of his was lying wounded next to him. The croc had bitten into Dan's calf, but fortunately not bitten it _off_ or Nate would have had a really big problem on his hands. He was no doctor, not even close to it, but even he could tell by mere glance that Dan would survive this, even if the injury did look ugly.

Ripping the sleeves off his shirt, he wound the cloth around the bite as securely as he could after rubbing off the blood with a leaf, then picked Dan up from the ground and tried to half-carry, half-support him on their way back to camp.

On their way back – if rescue wouldn't come – home.

* * *

><p>It was evening when Blair woke from a slumber she had slipped into while lying next to Chuck.<p>

Chuck.

There finally seemed to be peace between them. And she liked it. She loved it.

Or more correctly, she loved him.

She looked at his face, stained by the light of the sunset. Asleep it was so calm and young and handsome. If only she could freeze this moment and stay with him forever on this beach, looking out over the ocean, holding hands and just _being. _But that was of course too much to ask for.

And if they were saved, things would change and probably for the worse. The atonement they had achieved would probably be forgotten and their usual drama would come back, the heartbreak she had gotten used to by now and the fire that at the same time sparked their relationship and scorched them.

Slowly, she got up and crept over the beach, past the slumbering Serena and the comatose Eliot, to the place where the sand met the jungle. There they stored all the goods from the plane and here was also her makeshift beds.

After digging through the bag of plane stuff, she found what she had been looking for.

A bottle of gasoline and a match box.

Someone had to start the bonfire that would draw the attention of passing planes, ships and copters. And that someone had to be her.

Somewhere along the way she had decided that she'd had enough of being old bitchy Blair who needed minions and admirers to feel like somebody. Her new self would draw strength from other sources. She would become a helluva strong woman and she felt she could start her journey to become that woman by starting a fire.

It took her a couple of hours to find enough firewood to build a heap of a decent size, but she was glad when she was done, even though her clothes were dirty and torn and her carefully painted fingernails broken.

She stood back and admired her work.

Nobody back in the real world would have believed that Blair Waldorf – _the _Blair Waldorf – had actually made this. With her own hands.

She poured the gasoline over the sticks and branches, wrinkling her nose at the strong odor.

She felt excited, elated even. Finally her life didn't seem to be orbiting around her mommy issues, Chuck or her friends and enemies. Finally she felt free and alive and _badass. _

Lighting a match, she looked at the tiny flame at the point of the match for a second. _This used to be me_, she thought.

Then she threw the match. The tiny flame made an arc in the darkening air and landed on top of the pile. With a hiss, it immediately consumed the gasoline and in less than a minute the whole pile was on fire, burning first blue, then bright, bright red.

_And this is who I'll fight to become_.

She stood in lee of the wind so that the smoke wouldn't come her way and choke her. A smile spread over her face.

Though if she would have known what consequences her little triumphant fire would have, she wouldn't have smiled at all.

* * *

><p><strong>That was all for today, people.<strong>

**Please come back, leave a review or two, whether its hate mail, constructive criticism or a kind word, I'll welcome it all. Especially as the review section of this story is drying up like a desert in summer. And remember, authors are blind to their own mistakes, so I need all the help I can get. You up for it? ;)**

**_Music: You and I (Ingrid Michaelson) _**

**Have a lovely day!**

**Goodbye and good luck,**

**CheeseSwiss**


	8. Be OK

**OK.**

**I know. It takes ages for me to update. And I'm sorry, I hope there'll come a time when I'll speed up a little. ^^**

**Thank you for reading and following and reviewing. You peeps are the best!**

**The eight chapter, ladies and gentlemen:**

**Chapter 8. Be OK**

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><p><strong>(Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, except Eliot)<strong>

At first, it seemed as if it would be marvelous day as Serena awoke and found that Eliot had opened her eyes. Her mouth falling open in astonishment, she rushed to the wounded and knelt by her side.

"How are you feeling? Are you alright? Do you need something, water, food, medicine?" She stumbled over her own words in her excitement.

Eliot's eyes were big and blue and they blinked at Serena. "How… where am I? What happened?" She tried to sit up, but the pain made her grimace and lie down again. "I don't understand. What happened?" She gripped Serena's hand, as if expecting her to have answers. Her grip was feeble, but still urgent enough for Serena to want to calm her down.

"You're alright, just try to calm down a little." She sighed and wondered how to begin. "Look… the thing is, we've been in a plane crash. You got injured and were in a coma for… three days I think."

"Really? Plane crash?" Eliot frowned and looked at Serena as if she was thinking Serena was insane.

Now it was Serena's turn to become confused. "You're the pilot, aren't you? Don't you remember crashing the plane?"

Eliot shrugged. "Maybe. I don't feel well enough to remember anything, quite frankly, and it feels like there's a bog in my head. But I do recall panicking. You see, the fuel tank was running low so I thought I might emergency-land on this island… we are on an island, right? Anyway, I don't know what happened… but apparently nothing good." She looked down on her blood-stained body and frowned again. "Holy… no wonder I was in a coma. Is there a doctor here?"

Serena shook her head sadly. "We're all alone."

"You built a signal fire yet?"

Serena looked up. Minutes after waking up, she had seen a great flame farther west. Blair's doing, since Dan and Nate were still missing. "Looks like it…"

Eliot closed her eyes again and breathed in deeply. "Then we'll just have to wait."

Serena had long ago accepted that, but it still felt hard to hear it. Wait, wait and wait. How long would they wait? Until they were gray and wrinkly, until they had gone wild like the boys in Lord of the Flies? She shuddered at the thought of her attacking her friends with a knife and bared teeth.

Hopefully a plane or a ship or simply _anything _would notice them before the fire on the island went out along with her hope.

* * *

><p>Finally Nate could see the trees clear in front of him.<p>

He had hiked with still-unconscious Dan for over two hours and seven miles. As he stumbled out into the open, the soft earth of the jungle shifting to sand, his back felt like it could and would snap any minute and the arm supporting Dan had almost fallen off, as well.

He saw the fuselage of the plane, a great bonfire burning on one side of the beach, Blair standing in front of it… and then he saw Serena running towards them.

She embraced both Dan and Nate simultaneously, her arms like steel beams against his sore back.

Then she took a step back, the smile fading from her lips. She hissed furiously: "Where the hell have you been? Nate, how could you have been so stupid? Did you even think about anyone else when you just sauntered off into the jungle like that? No, you didn't, did you?"

Nate was too tired to tell her he had wanted to search after food.

She crossed her arms and looked so cute that he wanted to kiss her.

Instead he nudged his head toward Dan. "Um, can you give me a hand here?"

At last Serena stopped glaring at Nate and helped Nate bring Dan to the makeshift beds, where they lay him down on several cushions.

"What happened?"

"Crocodiles," Nate answered and sank down on a bed himself. His head was spinning of exhaustion and his mouth felt like it was filled with sand. Fortunately, he was lucky and there was a bottle of water lying just by the bed. He greedily gulped down the water, not even minding that it had been heated-up by the sun.

"His leg, Nate," Serena whimpered as she saw the damage that had been done to Dan. She squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped her arms around herself as if she was freezing. "I can't do this anymore… why does everyone have to go and get himself and herself hurt?"

Nate reached out and took her hand. It was warm and soft, just as it always had been.

"We found a sat phone. I think they're going to find us now."

Serena opened her eyes and looked at him, her gaze wide with disbelief.

He was about to open his mouth and tell her the same lie he always told her whenever he saw that she was upset, that everything would be alright, when there was a gasp and Dan awoke.

"Dan!" Serena let go of Nate's hand and rushed to Dan's side.

"It hurts," was all Dan said. His face remained expressionless.

Serena's face crumpled. She looked at Nate over her shoulder. "Please, Nate, get the medical supplies!"

It took a while for Nate to process the plea. He was thinking about the days before Serena had met Dan and everything just got screwed up.

"Nate!" Serena snapped, urgency in her tone.

"Oh, yeah.. um, sorry!" He gave her an apologetic smile and rushed off to the get the medical supplies. They lay just beside Eliot, the comatose pilot. Only, Nate noticed as he drew nearer, she wasn't in a coma anymore. Her eyes were open and stared into the sky.

"Oh, hi!" she said a little dreamily as she noticed him.

"I'm Nate," he said, a little distracted by her – though wounded – light and airy presence. "And I'm getting the medical supplies."

"OK." Her eyes wandered until they fastened on something to his left. "But maybe you should also check that out."

He turned, a little confused.

His stomach churned. Over the western beach, the sky was no longer blue. Smoke, black and dark-grey was swirling in it, darkening it.

First, Nate thought it was just the bonfire.

Then he saw the burning woods.

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><p><strong>I know, it's short and that's awful but I have the choice of either writing a longer chapter and taking more time or writing a shorter chapter with shorter breaks in-between. This time, the short chapter won again.<strong>

**Well, I hope you won't kill me for it but I'm not sure. :/**

**Please come back, leave a review or two, whether its hate mail, constructive criticism or a kind word, I'll welcome it all. Especially as the review section of this story is drying up like a desert in summer. And remember, authors are blind to their own mistakes, so I need all the help I can get. You up for it?**

**_Music: Be OK (Ingrid Michaelson)_**

**Now go ahead and have a good day!**

**Goodbye and good luck,**

**CheeseSwiss**


	9. Brave

**I've taken too long again, I know. But it's October and October is a very hectic month. I have too much to do and too little time to do it. I thought I'd be able to squeeze in 2-3 hours for a chapter sometime during the week, but no, I wasn't able. Only this Saturday did I finally get some peace and quiet and voila: I managed to write a chapter! It's short but with the little energy I have preserved nowadays, it's unfortunately all I have.**

**Thank you for reading, following and reviewing! You add the sparkle to the story.**

**Chapter Nine: Brave**

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><p><strong>(Disclaimer: I own none of the characters except Eliot)<strong>

The smell of smoke reached into his dreams.

Chuck opened his eyes. The blue sky was right above him, pressing down on him like a ceiling. Only, it was no longer blue. Thick black smoke filled it up and dimmed the light of the sun, giving the illusion of dusk.

As he breathed in, his lungs filled with smoke and he had to cough violently to get it all out again. Fortunately, he was lying relatively close to the water, so weak breezes blew through the worst, providing him with fresh, clean oxygen.

From where he lay, he even felt the heat of the fire. It was somewhere close. Chuck craned his neck to see exactly where the fire was burning, but the smoke worked like a fog and hid everything from view. He couldn't even see the fuselage or Serena or the pilot. And he couldn't see Blair.

Blair.

The moment he thought of her was the moment he heard her voice through the smoke.

She was screaming.

At the end of the day, there were only a few things that he couldn't stand. One was Dan Humphrey. The other one was people who didn't know that he was Chuck Bass. And the third was the sound of Blair in pain.

With the help of a crutch Serena had made for him, he pulled himself up more or less and took a wobbly step. Pain shot up through his leg, nearly bringing him to the ground again. He wasn't supposed to walk, he knew that.

He did it anyway.

* * *

><p>The fire was coming ever closer and Serena had no idea what to do. She couldn't leave Dan and she wouldn't either. But she couldn't carry him – unfortunately years of intense shopping and tanning hadn't given her any muscle.<p>

She was kind of stuck and the thing was, if she didn't figure it out soon, she'd be deep-fried along with Dan.

"Serena," Dan said tonelessly, not a muscle in his face moving. "I can't feel my leg."

She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. "Dan. It's going to be alright. I promise you. I'm going to help you as best as I can."

Dan closed his eyes. "Why is this happening?"

Serena squeezed his hand. "I don't know. Maybe we are punished. Maybe it's just… fate. It doesn't matter _what_it is. What matters is how we deal with it."

She tried to smile, but that just made her feel worse, so she hurried to follow the plan that had popped up in her mind.

The plane chairs were relatively light, she realized, made out of only foam and plastic. They would float well on the water…

She took hold of the chair Dan was lying on and started dragging it towards the water. As soon as she moved away from the fuselage, the smoke hit her and she doubled over, coughing violently. To help against the worst she tore her shirt apart and gave a piece of cloth to Dan to hold it over his mouth and tore another piece for herself.

Things didn't look pretty, even if she would be able to drag Dan and herself to the water. If the island burned down to the last leaf, they'd be left stranded in the ocean. And what would happen to the others? It hurt to even think about that.

But in all the chaos, she was sure of one single thing:

She'd never give up.

* * *

><p>It had happened so fast.<p>

One moment, she was watching the bonfire illuminate the sky. The next, the whole world was in flames.

There was no way out, either. She was surrounded by a wall of fire everywhere she turned. And the smoke made her cough until her lungs ached and her throat burned.

It was pitiful, really; Blair Waldorf, dying of her own fire. And when she came to think of it, it was pretty ironic, too.

But as she lay there, inhaling more and more of the poisonous smoke, she realized one other thing.

She realized that all her life, she had been acting in someone else's soap opera. She had never really lived. It was a difficult thing to accept, that she had basically let her life fly past her, but in the face of death she found that she could do it.

It was her biggest regret. And sadly, her last one.

"Goodbye world," she said softly. She could barely breathe in the fumes now.

"Why are you saying goodbye? You have barely said hello to it yet."

Chuck.

She lifted her head from the ground, looked at the approaching figure.

He was limping and his leg was bleeding but his face was set in a fierce determination she hadn't seen in him before. He jumped right through the wall of flames, and even when the back of his shirt caught fire he just threw sand over it and kept moving.

"I'm sorry," she whispered hoarsely as he knelt by her side. "I didn't mean to."

"Don't be," he murmured and stroked her over her cheek. "A new phoenix can only rise out of the ashes of an old one."

"I didn't know you were so philosophical," she mumbled as he scooped her up in his arms.

"Yeah," he smiled. "There's much you've yet got to learn about me."

She leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. "Chuck. I'm scared. Don't go."

"I'll be here, Blair. And I'm not leaving until you tell me to."

* * *

><p>Nate stared in horror at the thick pillar of smoke rising into the sky.<p>

"What…?"

Then he heard a laugh behind him that chilled him to his bone.

"You kids are getting desperate, aren't you."

A shiver running down his spine, Nate slowly turned around.

It was Eliot. She had risen and now she smiled brilliantly at Nate, no sign of pain or weakness in her eyes.

He stared at her. "How..?

She grinned. "Easy." She lifted her shirt from her stomach and showed the wound. It was bloody and nasty and Nate had no idea how she had been able to even rise.

Suddenly she grabbed the edge of her skin and peeled it off. It took him a while to understand, to completely absorb that her stomach was in fact fine and smooth and clear of blood.

"Theatre make-up. Nowadays you can buy it cheap on the internet."

She threw the fake bloody patch of skin away and folded her hands neatly. "But I'm tired of playing. To lie on the ground all day long is kind of a bore."

"I don't understand…" Nate frowned.

"Of course you don't. And I won't explain everything, at least not now."

She drew something out of her back pocket and directed it at him.

It was a gun.

"All you should know is that nothing is what it seems, Nate. Not the plane crash, not the island, not even me. I've got to admit, it was kind of difficult giving you the illusion that you were alone in this, but fortunately, we had hallucinogenic mushrooms at our aid."

Everything inside Nate froze.

"Oh, cheer up, will you, Nate Archibald?" Eliot tilted her head. "After all, together we're going to have so much fun!"

* * *

><p><strong><em>Music: Brave by Tawgs Salter<em>**

**Please leave a review. I love reviews and I greatly enjoy reading them, even if they're criticism or gibberish. In times like these a review is something lovely. So do some charity, take a minute of your life to write down a word or two and I'd be very happy.**

**Hopefully I'll be able to update soon. But until then, I wish you a wonderful evening or a brilliant morning depending which time zone you live in!**

**Goodbye and good luck,**

**CheeseSwiss**


	10. Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts

**Big thanks to all those read, review or favorite this story! Keep on the good work!**

**This is my little christmas present to you.**

**Chapter Ten: Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts**

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><p><strong>(Disclaimer: I own none of the characters except <em>Eliot<em>)**

Serena woke from a sleep she had never been meant to have.

It was dark. Waves everywhere. She couldn't see a thing.

But Dan still lay next to her. She searched for his pulse and found it, but it was weak, too weak, and when she shook him, he didn't respond.

She wanted to cry, to scream at the dark, but she didn't because she_ believed _that once it was morning again, once sun warmed their shoulders and illuminated the ocean, she could steer the armchair around, get them back to the island, and she would patch up Dan's leg and everything would be alright.

With this single spark of hope in her heart, she held Dan's hand, and waited for dawn.

* * *

><p>The fire died soon enough.<p>

There were still patches of jungle burning, but Chuck had managed to stifle most of the fire with sand, and now only the poisonous smoke remained.

Ignoring the pulsing pain in his leg, at first given chance, Chuck had run back to the camp and fetched a backpack full of medical supplies, remaining fresh water and some food, then he'd come back and fixed up Blair as best he could.

He had never seen her in such a state before – usually she was energy incarnated, scheming and planning and caring, all the things that she did best, and now only a ghost of her past self remained. She drank and ate and didn't complain when Chuck poured disinfectant over her wounds, but she did little else either.

Most of the time, she had her eyes closed, but sometimes, she'd open them so that they mirrored the sky that she looked up into. She didn't look at him. Or talk to him. If he hadn't known any better, he'd say that she was still angry with him, despite that he had saved her life. But he _did _know better, and he knew that she was going through something of her own, and that she had to go through it alone, because sometimes, that was the only way.

So he remained patient and took care of the fire and took care of practically everything and he realized that in himself, he saw glimpses of a person that he had the possibility to be. A person he could be proud of. Maybe even a person his _father _would have been proud of.

It was just stupid that it had taken a plane crash, a fire and a weak Blair for him to realize this.

Night came surprisingly quickly, and it was a small mercy – combined with the fire, the heat of the sun had been nearly unendurable, and now they were cast in shade and cool winds blew the smoke away and they could breathe fresh air again.

He covered Blair with a blanket so that she wouldn't freeze and lay down on the softest patch of sand he could find.

He was about to fall asleep, when suddenly there was a sharp sound in the air, like a gunshot.

Blair inhaled sharply and sat up. Chuck immediately rushed to her and tried to calm her down. "It was probably just some animal, Blair, OK? Calm down. I'll go look. But it's nothing, I promise."

For a moment, her gaze wavered, then she looked at him, and nodded. "OK," she said faintly.

He would have smiled there and then – it was the first word he had gotten out of her for who knew how long.

He himself felt shaken by the sudden sound, and though he was afraid of what it could have been, he was determined to prove to Blair that it was nothing serious – a wound can never heal if you constantly open it and in Blair's case she had to recover first before she could deal with stuff like this.

"I'll go look." He grabbed the thickest branch he could find and lit one end of it on a patch of dry grass that was still burning. "You stay here. I swear it's nothing serious, but hide in the jungle just in case, OK? Take the medicine and food and water with you. I'll be right back. I'm just going to look."

And then he couldn't help himself and gave her a brief hug – if something happened to him, at least he would die with the memory of her touch fresh in his mind.

Before he disappeared into the green depths of the jungle, Blair whispered in a tiny voice: "I love you."

"I love you."

It wasn't difficult to say those words anymore, it was so easy he could have laughed. Of course he loved her. Despite all her faults and despite all _his _faults, he loved her and it was wonderful, to be able to tell her that.

Then, because otherwise he'd never be able to, he left urgently and hurried through the jungle with his make-shift torch illuminating his path.

He felt completed. And happy, probably for the first time in his life.

But then he had to focus on finding the source of the sound and all his senses were preoccupied and he decided to think about Blair later.

It became clear quickly enough that there was nothing to be found. He saw animals, but no dangerous ones, no animals that could create the sound he had heard. The night was surprisingly still as well. He wondered if maybe one of the others – Dan, Serena, Nate or the pilot had maybe broken something. That was actually not impossible.

After about half an hour of blundering aimlessly through the jungle, he gave up and decided to head back and reassure Blair that it had been nothing.

He was about turn around when another sound made him freeze.

It wasn't a gunshot-like sound this time. Instead, it was a voice. The voice didn't seem familiar, which was strange, because he thought he and his friends were the only ones on the island, but then he remembered the pilot. Although, how could it be her? The last time he had seen her, she had been unconcious and severely injured. So what she was doing, walking through the jungle like that, chatting cheerily?

Then he heard another voice. It was Nate's.

Chuck breathed out in relief and hurried towards his friend and the pilot.

He jumped over murky logs and small streams in his eagerness, forgetting his bad leg completely, and suddenly ran out into the open. Or at first it just seemed like the open – then he saw that it was a clearing and he was surrounded by the jungle on all sides.

At first, as he saw Nate, he was jubilant.

Then he saw the pilot. And her gun.

He frowned, wondering what the hell was going on here. And what is her name, he asked himself, Elena... Elinor, and then he remembered it – Eliot.

Eliot was not like he remembered her. For one, she wasn't injured anymore, however that could have happened. And she was smiling, which was very unsettling, considering the fact that she was holding a gun.

The sight of him made her laugh for some reason.

"It seems as though it is my lucky day today. I mean, not only _Nate Archibald _but also _Chuck Bass_. It's like killing two birds with one stone. And you Chuck, _you _came to _me_. Oh, the irony."

Chuck wondered what she was rambling about. She seemed pretty crazy, as well. He wondered if it was possible, with a little help from Nate of course, to somehow overpower her and take her gun.

It was as if Eliot read his mind. Her smile evaporated and she directed the gun at him. "If you're thinking you can overpower me, think again. I'm not alone here. And we can spare many lives if we cooperate. Now, follow me."

Chuck exchanged glances with Nate. Nate nodded.

Then – because she was afterall training a gun at them, they followed Eliot out of the clearing into the lush, dark jungle, clinging to the hope that they would come out of all of this alive.

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><p><strong>Donate a review, wether praise or critism isn't important.<strong>

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**_Music: Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts by Arcade Fire_**

**Thanks,**

**CheeseSwiss**


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